Sheboygan man's murder still unsolved after 12 years

Jul. 11, 2013

Russell Beck's apartment on the south side of Sheboygan.

Russell Beck

How to helpThe investigation into Russell Beck’s murder remains open, and Sheboygan police continue to seek leads in the case. Anyone with information is encouraged to call Lt. Kurt Brasser at 920-459-3333, or Sheboygan County Crime Stoppers at 1-877-283-8436. Crime Stoppers callers can remain anonymous and could be eligible for a cash reward. Timelinein death of Russell F. BeckFriday, Aug. 10, 2001: Beck, 48, who lived alone, is last seen alive between 8 and 10 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 12, 2001: At 12:23 a.m., Beck’s body is discovered on the living room floor of his south-side Sheboygan apartment by a downstairs neighbor. A deputy coroner later removes Beck’s body from the apartment and tells neighbors that Beck died from an alcohol overdose. Police give Beck’s keys to his neighbors. The neighbors and landlords clean up Beck’s Apartment and remove a blood-stained carpet. Monday, Aug. 13, 2001: Five police detectives go to Beck’s apartment between 4:30 and 5 p.m. to investigate Beck’s death as a homicide. There was no sign of forced entry and no indication of a struggle. Beck should have had some money on hand, but police find no cash at the scene. Neighbors say Beck usually padlocked his front door, which was left wide open when his body was found. Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2001: An autopsy is completed on Beck’s body at 3 p.m. It shows that he died of multiple blunt-force traumas to the head. October, 2001: Police confirm that they have a suspect but are unable to question the man after he invoked his right to remain silent. May, 2002: Police arrest Gerald L. Weinhold for attempted murder in a separate case and confirm that Weinhold is also a suspect in the Beck murder. Wienhold is later sentenced to 25 years in prison in the attempted murder case, but no charges are ever filed against him related to Beck’s death. Weinhold is now in prison until 2027, when he’s scheduled to be placed on extended supervision. January, 2010: Sheboygan police say two detectives remain assigned to the case and are still actively investigating a tip received within the last year. June, 2013: Sheboygan police say the case remains active and are encouraging anyone with information to come forward. Source: Sheboygan Press archives and interviews with police and family.

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An overturned chair and swath of blood were all Ricky Kurtz needed to see before concluding that his cousin had been murdered.

It was mid-day on Aug. 12, 2001 and Kurtz had just arrived at his cousin’s south-side Sheboygan apartment, where a neighbor had earlier found 48-year-old Russell Beck’s body slumped on the living room floor.

Upon entering, Kurtz could see the blood stained outline of where Beck had come to rest, while a dumbbell normally kept in the living room was nowhere to be found.

“It looked like he’d gotten hit (with the dumbbell) while sitting in the chair, and it tipped over, and that’s where he lay,” said Kurtz, 59, who lived two blocks away at the time. “I just knew it wasn’t natural causes, period.”

While Kurtz would instantly suspect that foul play was involved, multiple witnesses said it would take Sheboygan police nearly 40 hours to seal off the apartment as a crime scene. The lapse triggered a series of missteps in the initial investigation that family members believe are a significant factor in why Beck’s murder remains unsolved nearly a dozen years later.

Police at the time denied that mistakes were made in their investigation and have since declined to discuss the case for this story, only to say the investigation remains active. A key suspect, who refused to cooperate with investigators, was never formerly charged and is now in prison for a nearly identical crime.

“Obviously, if we had a good case, and probable cause, we would have charged someone,” Lt. Kurt Brasser said.

As the years have passed, members of Beck’s tight-knit family have begun to accept that they may never know for sure who’s responsible for Beck’s murder.

“We don’t have closure,” said Jennifer Westphal, 58, of West Bend, the second youngest of Beck’s five sisters. “That’s what we need.”

Neighbors and family say crime scene was comprimised

Beck was a Vietnam veteran and outdoors enthusiast who worked as a welder at K.P. Welding in Sheboygan at the time of his death.

His family members remember him as a quiet, gentle and sweet man, who’s willingness to help and trust others may have lead to his death.

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The last anyone had heard from Beck was the night of Friday Aug. 10, 2001, when his sister, Kathy Wilterdink, now 62, said she made plans to meet him the following day in northern Wisconsin.

Beck never showed.

On Sunday morning, shortly after midnight, a downstairs neighbor noticed that the door to Beck’s upstairs apartment — which was normally padlocked — was left wide open and upon entering found his body, dead to the touch.

From the outset, police and a deputy coroner wrongly believed that Beck died of alcohol poisoning, based on accounts from neighbors and family members.

It wasn’t until late afternoon the following day that yellow police tape went up as detectives began investigating Beck’s death as a homicide. An autopsy later showed he’d died of multiple blunt-force traumas to the head.

But by that point, family members contend, the crime scene had been mishandled in ways that couldn’t be undone.

Early in the day Sunday, police gave Beck’s keys to neighbors, who were left free to come and go. Those same neighbors said they unwittingly tampered with evidence, at one point cleaning up blood and removing carpeting.

“It was so compromised, by the time they (police) wanted to do anything it was too late,” Kurtz said. “It was just a wide-open crime scene.”

Tammy Manning, who lived downstairs from Beck, said in a 2002 interview with The Sheboygan Press that a police detective gave her the keys the day Beck’s body was discovered and told her Beck had died of an alcohol overdose and vomited blood.

That same day, Manning was told — incorrectly — that one of Beck’s relatives was on her way to the apartment, prompting Manning and the landlords to clean the residence and remove a bloody carpet.

“The first thing in my mind is, ‘let’s get this nasty, bloody carpet out of here. She does not need to see this,’” Manning said at the time.

Robert Wojs, who was deputy police chief at the time, would deny that the investigation was compromised and conceded little when asked about how the crime scene was handled.

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“In hindsight, there were things that were done that I wish had been done differently,” Wojs told The Sheboygan Press in a 2002 interview. “It’s not atypical to go back to a crime scene more than once.”

Wojs, who’s since retired, declined to be interviewed for this story because it remains an open investigation.

Wojs said following the murder that there was no sign of forced entry into Beck’s apartment, where he lived alone, and no indication of a struggle.

Police did however quickly identify a suspect, who refused to cooperate.

Suspect had committed a nearly identical crime

Today, family members have pieced together enough evidence to feel fairly certain of what may have happened to Beck.

Before he was murdered, Beck had withdrawn $1,500 from the bank so he could attend the military graduation of a friend’s daughter, who Beck had mentored and treated as his own child over the years.

But Beck made the mistake of telling people about the money, family members said. One of those people was Gerald L. Weinhold, who police would eventually identify as a suspect in the case.

Kurtz said that Weinhold and Beck had met a month earlier and the two became friends, with Beck loaning him money and letting him stay at his apartment.

Based on information from police and what they observed at the crime scene before it was taped off, family members theorized that on the night of the murder, Beck was hit over the head from behind with the15-pound dumbbell that was missing from the apartment.

Police at the time would only confirm that no money was found in Beck’s apartment, so family members have concluded that a jar Beck kept for spare change and the $1,500 cash disappeared.

Afterward, family members said Weinhold was overheard at a Sheboygan bar bragging about having committed the crime.

Police, however, couldn’t place him at the scene.

Beck’s sister, Barbara Gesch, 63, of West Bend, said police told her they couldn’t use evidence gathered at Beck’s apartment that may have shown Weinhold had been there. That’s because Beck had been letting Weinhold stay with him at various points leading up to the crime.

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Nine months later, Weinhold was arrested and charged with attempted homicide for an almost identical attack that occurred in May 2001 where he entered a Sheboygan home and hit a man in the head with a tire iron and stole $300.

Following the arrest, police confirmed Weinhold was also a suspect in Beck’s murder but said he’d invoked his right to an attorney and to remain silent.

Weinhold is now serving a 25-year prison term for the May 2001 crime. He’s scheduled to be released and placed on extended supervision in 2027.

If Weinhold is in fact guilty in Beck’s death, that he’s in prison for another 14 years is no solace for family members.

“He could stay in jail for 200 years. So what?” Westphal said. “Unless we know (for sure) that he was the one, we’ll never have closure.”

A 'senseless' crime

Kurtz called the murder “senseless,” as Beck would have never resisted had someone tried to rob him.

“If you wanted to take the money from him you could have just pulled it from him,” Kurtz said. “A malicious, mean, evil rotten human killed him for no reason whatsoever.”

Following Beck’s funeral, family members met with police to voice their frustration over how the investigation was handled.

“They kept saying there was nothing they did wrong...and that they did everything by the book,” Westphal said.

That’s the last the family heard from police.

Today, Westphal pretends Beck, who would have been 60 in January, is traveling for work or away on one of his outdoor excursions, climbing mountains or camping, as he was known to do, usually with Kurtz at his side.

Kurtz, meanwhile, said he still makes frequent detours to drive past Beck’s apartment.

He also keeps close a photo he found of Beck where he’s nearing the crest of a snow-capped mountain, with blue sky in the background.

The photo, Kurtz said, makes it look as if Beck is walking off into heaven.